Cover Art

My previous post focused on my former students, Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider, and their musical talents. I also mentioned that Sam did the painting of Hadde of Landomere you see on the blog. I first learned of Sam's artistic talent when he was a sophomore in high school. Toward the end of the school year I went to our school's art show and saw this piece of art:



I was so impressed that I asked Sam to paint Hadde for me. I wanted a sketch of her as well as a cover for my novel. I gave Sam the first three chapters of the manuscript and a description of what I was looking for. In short order he produced this:



I love what he did. The scene is from a fight that takes place in chapter one. It is a brutal fight that sets the dark, serious tone for the book. Tension is critical for a fantasy novel, and in chapter one we discover that Hadde lives in a world full of peril. In fact, it is a world in peril.

Will this be the actual cover of the novel? I'm sure it won't. The publisher will have their artists create the real thing. Sam's cover serves another purpose. I had him blow it up to poster size, and it now hangs on the wall in my office. It is wonderful inspiration for what I hope to accomplish.

My Famous Former Students

Two of my former students are experiencing some tremendous YouTube success. So much success that they were interviewed on national television by Bonnie Hunt. I taught Kurt Schneider and Sam Tsui in my AP Economics class. They were the kind of student a teacher never forgets. Kurt was an amazing mathematician who never opened his economics book once the entire year. He didn't need to. Sam added acting and artistic talent to his academic achievements. He's responsible for the sketch of Hadde you see on the blog. He also made an Eternal Knight book cover for me. I'll add the cover to a later blog entry. Check them out:

I am a Wargamer

What's wargaming?

Wargaming is a hobby that involves using painted lead soldiers, models, dice, and rulers to recreate historical, fantasy, or sci-fi battles. There are two very different aspects of the hobby. One half is the collecting and painting of the figures. The other half is the fighting of the battles. I've been wargaming since the mid 90's. This includes both friendly matches and tournaments.

What does wargaming have to do with Eternal Knight?

The novel is a fantasy novel, and as such includes elements of magic and the supernatural. However, I like to think of it as an uber-realistic and gritty fantasy novel. The willing suspension of disbelief is tremendously important to me. I want you to believe in what is happening on the page. This is especially important in action and battle sequences. As soon as the reader frowns at the novel and says, "That can't happen!" the writer has lost. Wargaming has been hugely helpful to me in two ways.


First of all it has made me very well versed in the history of warfare and military technology. A history nut will recognize that I've set the technology level of the novel at approximately 1350 CE (in Western Europe). I chose that technology level, and I stuck to my guns. You won't find wildly incongruous combinations of weapons and armor. I once read a fantasy novel in which one of the protagonists (unarmored and wielding a rapier) defeated a plate armor clad knight. Of course he won because the knight was so encumbered by his armor that he could barely move. AARRGG! It was a ridiculous depiction of what this combat would have looked like in real life. If armor so encumbered knights that they could be defeated in such a manner, knights never would have worn so much armor.

Wargaming has also helped me understand the big picture of a battle. The rules include elements such as morale and fatigue. Fantasy novels are filled wiht armies fighting to the death. Except in rare circumstances, this just doesn't happen. Fear and fatigue take a terrible toll on armies. Self-preservation is a powerful motivator--I don't care if you are a human, a goblin, or a dragon. Now, sometimes in history a unit has managed to fight its way out of impossible odds. It happens in wargaming as well. But when it happens in a book, the author needs to work twice as hard and make me BELIEVE IT!

If you'd like to take a look at some of my historical wargaming tournament battles just follow this link.

Kindle on the iPhone

Nathan Bransford recently wrote a post about e-books, Kindle, and the iPhone. He was so enthusiastic about the iPhone Kindle app that I went out and downloaded it (for free). I needed a book to read so went to Amazon and downloaded ($7.50) Philip Pullman's, The Golden Compass.

Wow! This is fantastic! The iPhone is easy to read on and the application is simple to use. You'd think it would be difficult to read on the small screen. Nope. Since you can use your finger to sweep to the next page, there is no interruption to your reading as you advance. Text size is adjustable and the screen lighting is variable to fit your current reading conditions.

I've wasted a lot of down time (waiting in line, Dr's office, daughter's gymnastics lesson, etc.) with iPhone games. Now I have a novel in my pocket any time I want it. My consumption of novels has significanly decreased over the past few years--no more. I have a feeling I'll be consuming a lot more books in the coming months.

Oh, so far (the first 15 pages or so) The Golden Compass is excellent.

Very Cool

My friend, Mike Shultz, took me to New York City to have lunch with his editor (Carsten Polzin of Piper Fantasy) yesterday. Carsten was in New York for a few days of business following Worldcon in Montreal the previous week.

Carsten "discovered" Mike's novel, Sword of Memory, after reading one of his short stories and checking out the link to Mike's website. Carsten saw that Mike was working on a novel and asked to take a look at the manuscript. One thing led to another and Mike now finds himself in the unusual situation of having his novel published in German before being published in English.

We ate at the Gramercy Tavern on East 20th street. I was very impressed. Great service, excellent food, and wonderful beer. It was made all the better when Carsten announced at the beginning of the meal that his publishing house was picking up the bill. Cheers to Piper Fantasy.

We spent at good two hours talking about the path Mike's novel would follow to publication, the publishing industry in general, and fantasy in specific. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire affair. It was just plain cool to find myself sitting in a restaurant in the publishing capital of the world talking to an editor. I couldn't help but imagine that somewhere, just a few blocks (or so) from my table, my future agent and publisher were waiting for my manuscript.

Much appreciation to Mike for taking me along, and to Carsten for both the meal and conversation.

In the dumps

Feeling blue. This project is taking forever and I just can't find the time it needs. My manuscript needs to be as perfect as I can possibly make it before I even query an agent. At this point I'm thinking "as perfect as I can possibly make it" just won't be good enough. How many more hours do I pour into a project that will never see the light of day? Do I even have the writing chops to get something published? How many hours of study and practice will it take to gain the necessary skills?

Bah.

So what's keeping me going?
1) I absolutely believe that I've created a great story.
2) The rewards (I'm not talking money--I'm not that big a fool) of successfully getting published will be phenomenal.

Evil Editor

I put my opening 200+ words on Evil Editor. 17 Comments so far. Nothing too brutal. I confused some readers in the second paragraph with my description of the Kiremi raiders. They also wanted a minor character (Geros) mentioned earlier. Several readers said that they would read further. Overall it was a positive experience.

Back in the Saddle

Sort of fell out of the saddle for the past week. No blogging, worse yet, no writing. I'm back into it tonight. Working on the critical first three chapters. When you're querying cold you really need to land the hook in the first three chapters. My friend Kemp is helping with the polishing process. I really need to set aside a specific time for writing. Pre-child it was very easy to do. Not so much any more.

Best wishes to my friend Mike Shultz. He just recently started the query process. Let's hope for lots of requests for complete manuscripts.

Paying Attention

I am a much different reader than I used to be. I used to blast through books, barely taking in the details as I rushed to finish the story. That's all that mattered to me...story. It's a problem for me now. I have a great story to tell, but I need to take to the time to set the scene and write the emotions and describe the details. It's not enough that they're all in my head. I have to get it down on the page.

That's what I'm doing right now. One more trip through the manuscript, making sure that I've dotted the i's and crossed the t's. I want the world of Eternal Knight to be as real to the reader as it is in my head.

I've been re-reading two novels in an effort to capture how the authors handle description and narration. One is George R. R. Martin's, A Game of Thrones, and the other is Christian Cameron's, Tyrant. I love the way these two authors write.

Progress Report

Slow but steady progress on editing. I'm going to revamp my time schedule for the query process. I'm thinking August 1st right now. It's been very hectic around the house finishing up landscaping and getting ready for a family reunion. Things should quiet down next week.

I'm very happy with the last batch of changes I've made. Kemp's suggestions have been a huge help. I'm not worried about the delay in querying--writing doesn't pay the bills around here. I needs to make the manuscript as flawless as possible before I launch it into the world.